After reading the comments on my last post I thought I would elaborate further on my thoughts on the high school genre. First off my list of high school movies is completely influenced by what I have and have not seen. After looking up high school films and seeing the great many lists of the best ones out there, I can say that most people do believe that Dazed and Confused and Fast Times at Ridgemont High are within the top 5 every time. However I've never seen them so I can't judge and place them on my list.
With the films I have seen I have to admit that my experience with the high school genre is fairly unique. Almost all of the movies on my list and actually most movies that deal with high school I didn't see until I was in college. I had already been in high school and knew what it was really like. I know watching many of these films with friends they're always mentioning how they thought high school really would be like the films they saw. You would have the clearly distinct "clicks," where no one ever communicated outside their click and each had its own table in the cafeteria. You would have some situation that would cause the students to confront their differences and unite. I think this is part of the reason so many people are obsessed with these movies. These movies represent what they think high school should have been like. The geek was supposed to end up with the hot cheerleader, the students all realize that there is more to life than just high school, and in worse case scenarios like The Faculty after defeating the enemy, the students realize who they really are.
The high school genre has always claimed that high school was where you really discover yourself and that is where their success stems from. And this aspect of the genre is still what hooks the youth of today. With the High School Musical series, today's youth are convinced that not only will high school be a breeze if you have the right dance moves but high school is where you really find out who you are and what you want in life. It isn't until you actually reach high school that you realize that life is no where near as simple or formulaic as the genre claims it to be. And while we are generally disappointed that our lives didn't turn out as we thought they would we continue to watch these films to remind ourselves what we really want out of life. We want to figure out who we are and to be are own individuals. So while high school may not turn out to be what we want it to be, the films serve as a reminder of what we want to achieve in life and to always remember who we are.
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I agree with you that the High School Genre of movies depicts a Hollywood type, and not anything realistic. They seem to all follow the same formula, probably because it makes money, which people will pay because they like to get lost in a comforting high school fantasy. But one movie that in my opinion breaks away from this cookie cutter mold is "Superbad." The dialogue is fresh and realistic, and the scenarios are very true. Like when Fogell gets his fake ID with the name "McLovin" on it, or when Seth and Evan are left to getting all the alcohol for a party which they're compelled to do for girls. There are just tons of real life scenarios that this movie portrays and I think its done well and outside of the mold.
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